So how many stolen V-8s can you fit into the back of your Holden Ute? Over $2.5 million worth, according to Australian newspaper Adelaide Now. Possibly due to the lack of an effective tracking system, many V-8 engines as well as automatic and manual transmissions have been stolen from a GM Holden plant in Australia, and then sold throughout Australia to car clubs and on eBay.

The stolen V-8s retail for around $10,000 a pop in Australia, and are used in everything from the Holden VE Commodore and Ute, to the American-marketChevrolet Caprice police car. On the black market, the engines were going for approximately $1500-$2000.The theft wasn't discovered until Australian police found a V-8 engine stolen from the Elizabeth, South Australia plant during an unrelated investigation. Holden wasn't aware it was missing engines until South Australian police had contacted it.Australian detectives say that despite the plant's security checkpoint for trucks entering and exiting the facility, the engines were stolen because the factory had "no effective tracking system" in place to make sure that engines and transmissions delivered to the plant were actually used on the production line. Police suggest a small group of factory insiders may have been directly responsible for the crime, with a larger group complicit in the thefts."GM's quality, security, tracking and inventory system controls are robust and have stood the test of time," said Greg Martin, GM's executive director of global communications. "These systems make the attempted theft of parts easily detected and rare. Incidences such as the one in Australia, allegedly by employees, are very unusual and we are assisting authorities in their ongoing investigation."Source: Adelaide Now, GM

I want to know who in their right mind would steal a $10K engine that only goes for $1500-2000 on the black market. That's a loss of $8k per sale. Dude, get a better paying illegal profession. sell weapons or drugs.
*tongue-in-cheek*

How did they come to the conclusion that these engines were stolen in Holden Utes? Just because they're used in them doesn't mean they were stolen that way.
And how does the GM rep come to the conclusion that their inventory tracking system is robust when they lost 2500 engines and didn't even know? That's sort of the opposite of robust.